Association of Vitamin D3 Level with Breast Cancer Risk and Prognosis in African-American and Hispanic Women

Yanyuan Wu; Marianna Sarkissyan; Sheilah Clayton; Rowan Chlebowski; Jaydutt V Vadgama

doi:10.3390/cancers9100144

Association of Vitamin D3 Level with Breast Cancer Risk and Prognosis in African-American and Hispanic Women

Cancers (Basel). 2017 Oct 24;9(10):144. doi: 10.3390/cancers9100144.

Authors

Yanyuan Wu^{1

2}, Marianna Sarkissyan³, Sheilah Clayton⁴, Rowan Chlebowski^{5

6}, Jaydutt V Vadgama^{7

8}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Cancer Research and Training, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, 1731 East 120th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90059, USA. yanyuanwu@cdrewu.edu.
² Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. yanyuanwu@cdrewu.edu.
³ Division of Cancer Research and Training, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, 1731 East 120th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90059, USA. mariannasarkissyan@cdrewu.edu.
⁴ Division of Cancer Research and Training, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, 1731 East 120th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90059, USA. sheilahclayton@cdrewu.edu.
⁵ Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. rchlebow@whi.org.
⁶ Harbor UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, CA 90509, USA. rchlebow@whi.org.
⁷ Division of Cancer Research and Training, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, 1731 East 120th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90059, USA. jayvadgama@cdrewu.edu.
⁸ Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. jayvadgama@cdrewu.edu.

Abstract

Background: This study investigated the association of vitamin D3 levels with breast cancer risk and progression in African-Americans and Hispanics. Methods: A total of 237 African-American (Cases = 119, Control = 118) and 423 Hispanic women (Cases = 124, Control = 299) were recruited in the study. Blood samples were collected at the time of breast cancer screening and prior to cancer treatment for 4 weeks on average for the cases. The serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D3) was measured at a Quest-Diagnostics facility. Results: The results showed that 69.2% of African-Americans and 37.8% of Hispanics had 25(OH)D3 levels below 20 ng/mL. The 25(OH)D3 level below 20 ng/mL was significantly associated with breast cancer in both African-Americans (OR = 2.5, 95% CI = 1.3-4.8) and Hispanics (OR = 1.9, 95% CI = 1.1-3.0). However, the predicted probabilities of breast cancer in African-Americans were significantly higher than in Hispanics (p < 0.001). The 25(OH)D3 below 20 ng/mL was significantly associated with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) in African-Americans (OR = 5.4, p = 0.02, 95% CI = 1.4-15), but not in Hispanics in our cohort of participants. Levels of 25(OH)D3 below 26 ng/mL predicts a decrease in disease-free survival, but it was not an independent predictor. Conclusions: Our data shows an association between 25(OH)D3 levels and the risk of breast cancer. Further studies on the relationship between 25(OH)D3 level and breast cancer risk are warranted.

Keywords: African-American women; Hispanic women; breast cancer; disparity; metastases; vitamin D.

Abstract

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